CenterBook Partners LP Sells 24,532 Shares of Essential Utilities Inc. $WTRG

Posted by Brenda Bartman on Jun 11th, 2026

CenterBook Partners LP reduced its stake in shares of Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG – Free Report) by 53.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 21,503 shares of the company’s stock after selling 24,532 shares during the quarter. CenterBook Partners LP’s holdings in Essential Utilities were worth $825,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Essential Utilities in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $51,000. Pinebridge Investments LLC bought a new position in Essential Utilities in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $473,000. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund bought a new position in Essential Utilities in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,621,000. Nuance Investments LLC bought a new position in Essential Utilities in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,835,000. Finally, Prudential PLC boosted its stake in Essential Utilities by 15.6% in the fourth quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 79,077 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,033,000 after acquiring an additional 10,666 shares during the last quarter. 74.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WTRG has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Essential Utilities in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Argus raised shares of Essential Utilities to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Essential Utilities from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $41.00 to $43.00 in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.80.

Check Out Our Latest Research Report on WTRG

Essential Utilities Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of NYSE WTRG opened at $37.64 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $38.43 and its 200-day moving average is $38.87. The stock has a market cap of $10.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.11 and a beta of 0.66. Essential Utilities Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.10 and a twelve month high of $42.37. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21.

Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $861.76 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $782.90 million. Essential Utilities had a return on equity of 8.34% and a net margin of 21.82%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.03 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Essential Utilities Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

Essential Utilities Profile

(Free Report)

Essential Utilities, Inc, formerly known as Aqua America, is a publicly traded water and natural gas utility holding company. Through its regulated water and wastewater subsidiaries, the company provides essential water services to residential, commercial and industrial customers. In addition, Essential Utilities delivers natural gas distribution services in Pennsylvania through its Peoples Gas subsidiary, offering integrated utility solutions under a unified corporate framework.

The company traces its roots to the Philadelphia Suburban Water Company, founded in 1886 to serve growing communities outside Philadelphia.